Legislative Process & Healthcare Lobbying, Essay Example

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the legislative process and healthcare lobbying from a nursing perspective. Nurses are advocates for their patients and thus must immerse themselves in the political process in order to enhance the overall health and well-being of their patients at the community level. Discerning how a personal opinion is informed by nursing research will elucidate the intricacies of the legislative process and how clinicians can effectively lobby for pressing healthcare issues.

Legislative Process 

The legislative process is pertinent to nurse practitioners, ambulatory care nurses, and registered nurses because of how profoundly legislation shapes healthcare policies in the U.S. health care system (Phillips, 2003). To impact the American healthcare system, a robust body comprised of nurses empowered to using their position, expertise and numbers to exercise agency and effectively advocate for their patients outside of clinical practice settings (Leavitt, 2011).  Nurses are cognizant that the current healthcare system in America is highly flawed and requires structural changes. Many practicing nurses undergo various experiences in the real world settings that propel them to embrace an advocacy role to influence meaningful changes in regulations, laws, and regulations that dictate the macro healthcare system.In the U.S., 1 out of 100 adults are nurses, and 1 out of every 44 female voters are nurses. In every congressional district, there are an estimated 10,000 nurses. In Congress, there are currently three nurses: Eddie Bernice Johnson, Carolyn McCarthy, and Lois Capps. Nurses derive their health care knowledge and expertise from experience, practice, education, and extensive training. In addition, the public appreciates and recognizes nurses’ steadfast commitment and knowledge, as they consistently rank as the highest profession on the Gallup Poll entitled “Honesty and Ethics in Professions.” Because of their lauded position in the public sphere and the sheer number of nurses who can take action and advocate for their patients, nurses occupy an optimal position to exert their influence on policymakers, members of Congress, and health care policy in general (Phillips, 2003). The recent publicity generated around the passing the Nurse Reinvestment Act and the purported shortage of nurses, legislators have increasingly paid more attention to nurses. As such, nurses must exploit and take advantage of ginned up media attention and wield such influence in beneficial and positive ways to directly address issues affecting nurses spanning the entire spectrum of diverse nursing areas. Nurse must continue to foment an awareness of the legislative process and harness their empirical knowledge of the political sphere.

Analysis Of Political Issues 

With regards to political issues, nurses are primarily aware of those that are salient in the legislative arena (Burckhardt & Nathaniel). Nurses primarily express interest in political issues that that involve professional regulation, moral values, the level of health and well-being of the individual within his or her milieu, distributive justice. Opinions on these issues vary amongst nurses according to their code of ethics, cultural biases, personal experiences and various other external factors. The issue of nurse staffing has remained a complicated issue, and it has recently retained currency in the legislative and political arenas. Four legislative proposals in Congress seek to address staffing, as multiple state legislatures have underscored its importance. Research conducted on this political issue within healthcare settings has yielded mixed results. Increasing nursing personnel enhances the job satisfaction of nurses because they feel less burned out, there is no empirical evidence that demonstrates that more staffing abates the number of patient falls or less incidents of pressure ulcers developing (Hertel, 2012). Moreover, a wide range of terminology and multiple staffing models have further complicated this political issue. Patient safety and care is always the primary concern for the policies nurses advocate for at the state and national levels. Current research suggests that when there is an increase in registered nurses, there is an overall 1.24% reduction in patient mortality. Additionally, when the staffing ratio of RN-patients are higher, there are less incidents of patients suffering from cardiac arrest, pneumonia acquired in the hospital, and other negative events. Conversely, when nurses have to work overtime because of chronic understaffing, studies show that patient mortality increases in addition to shock, hospital-acquired infections, and infections of the bloodstream. The majority of nurses have expressed their belief that quality of care improves when mandated nursing policies are implemented. Another corpus of literature validates the argument that the quality of care is not impacted by mandated nurse-patient ratios (). Various stakeholders remain involved in the discussion generated over this issue,

 Student’s Opinion on Political Issue 

If patient care and safety is the primary focus of legislation that pertains to healthcare settings, then clinicians must vouch for the mandates that will yield the most positive outcomes. Managers and clinicians currently only set ratios of nurse-patient based on what they extrapolate from research findings as well as from their previous experiences. Without any legal or political mandate for a standardized regulation of staffing nurses, the only alternative practice would be to benchmark staffing and the observed outcomes in relation to peers in addition to averting situations in which there are extremes in adverse events and low nurse staffing. Even such measures may not empirically yield positive results. One study conducted in California required a certain nurse-patient ratio, which may have some indications that similar results could be achieved in other states or regions.While the study in California proved that there were positive outcomes when legal mandates for a certain was enforced, results also suggested that states that lacked regulations did not yield positive results. As such, a new model need to be developed in which unit nurses can provide input in order to develop plans amongst nursing personnel that depended on patient outcomes for those patients who rely on patient care. Such a method would address nurse staffing necessities without imposing stringent mandates and allow nurses to have a more direct role in decisions rendered about staffing

In conclusion, the healthcare environment has in place a vast array of laws, policies, and regulations that have been imposed by government agencies, institutions, and private sector insurers. As a result, both patients and nurses are confronted by a myriad of challenges because they are suspended amidst the cross-currents of access to adequate, high-quality healthcare and cost constraints. Political advocacy pushes nurses to transcend their usual practice settings and exert their agency in the less familiar world of politics and policy. Successful policy advocacy by the nurse is influenced by whether or not nurses have the willpower, power, energy, time, and political dexterity that enables them to navigate the unfamiliar legislative arena.

References

Abood, S. (2007). Influencing health care in the legislative arena. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 12(1).

Hertel, R. (2012). Regulate patient staffing: A complex issue. Health Care Reform & Issues in   Nursing, 21(1), 3-7.

Kendig, S.M. (2006). Advocacy, action, and the allure of butter: A focus on policy. Highlights of the Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health 8^th Annual Conference. Retrieved October 8, 2015, from www.medscape.com/viewarticle/523631.

Leavitt, J.K. (2011). Linking practice, policy and politics: Using nursings power to improve health. Presentation: Arlington, VA. Nurse in Washington Internship (NIWI) Program.

Phillips, R. (2003). Health Care Policy: The Nurse’s Crucial Role. Viewpoint, 25(3), 3-4

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